Manipulating Binary Data with Bash
Bit Trip
© Lead Image © Yewkeo, 123RF.com
Bash is known for admin utilities and text manipulation tools, but the venerable command shell included with most Linux systems also has some powerful commands for manipulating binary data.
One of the most versatile scripting environments available on Linux is the Bash shell. The core functionality of Bash includes many mechanisms for tasks such as string processing, mathematical computation, data I/O, and process management. When you couple Bash with the countless command-line utilities available for everything from image processing to virtual machine (VM) management, you have a very powerful scripting platform.
One thing that Bash is not generally known for is its ability to process data at the bit level; however, the Bash shell contains several powerful commands that allow you to manipulate and edit binary data. This article describes some of these binary commands and shows them at work in some practical situations.
Viewing and Converting Data
Two tools you can use to represent data in hexadecimal and binary format are hexdump and xxd. The hexdump utility provides many options for outputting hexadecimal data. Although xxd lacks some of the options available with hexdump, it does have one key feature hexdump lacks: In addition to letting you output hexadecimal values, xxd also has the ability to convert a hexadecimal string into binary data. The following command:
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.
-
TuxCare Has a Big AlmaLinux 9 Announcement in Store
TuxCare announced it has successfully completed a Security Technical Implementation Guide for AlmaLinux OS 9.
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.
-
Linux Kernel 6.13 Offers Improvements for AMD/Apple Users
The latest Linux kernel is now available, and it includes plenty of improvements, especially for those who use AMD or Apple-based systems.